Rural areas on the southern end of Miller County, Ark., were without electricity for about 12 hours Saturday after getting pelted with walls of rain throughout Friday night.
Eric Cunningham, Miller County road director, said about six rural roads were closed down between Friday night and Saturday as the county worked to mend washed out culverts and roadways.
Thunder cracked across the sky beginning about 11 p.m. Friday, while rain poured from what seemed like every direction, with brilliant bursts of lightning serving as the only light for some hoping to peer through the thick, capricious rains.
"I've seen seven county roads that have washed out," Cunningham said, adding that County Road 206 was temporarily mended. "Worse than that, we have a whole lot of culverts washed out."
"It's all this flash flooding," Cunnningham said. "I estimate we got about 5 to 7 inches (of rain) last night in about 5 hours."
"The drains out here aren't going to hold up to that kind of rain," he said.
County Roads 5, 189, 4, 14 and 419 were still closed late Saturday, but Cunningham said the main priority will be getting them back open.
David Splater, who works as the county's roadmaster, helped Cunningham assess damage or flooding to roadways throughout the county and try to get them passable for residents.
Splater also helped Fouke Mayor Terry Purvis checked generators at Fouke City Hall to make sure citizens had running water through the hours-long storm.
"This was the first time I can even remember water going over (U.S.) Highway 71 down near the Kiblah community and the Louisiana line," Splater said.
Purvis lauded efforts made by Cunningham and Splater, who worked at clearing roadways and assessing damage to get roads passable Friday and Saturday.
"Everything seemed to be in Fouke and Doddridge," Purvis said. "We got the first call out at 10 o'clock (Friday) night and have been out since 5 o'clock this (Saturday) evening, trying to get these roads passable."
Purvis said the entire town was without electricity about 12:30 a.m. Saturday morning.
"I woke up about 4 a.m. and thought, 'Here we go,'" said Purvis, who spent much of last summer dealing with flooded areas and levees as deputy director of the county's Office of Emergency Management.
"A tree went over the substation on South State Line at Gifford Hill, the gravel pit," Purvis said. "The main transmission line came down, causing electricity loss in many parts of Miller County. All of Fouke was out of power."
Purvis said workers moved 10 to 12 trees that had landed across county roads Friday night. An overabundance of rain for much of the last year-beginning with the devastation of last summer's Red River flood-has trees and soil in rural areas are saturated with water, causing them to fall over, he explained.
"The ground is so saturated," Purvis said. "There is trees down everywhere. In these areas, you have county roads that you can go down and pretty much have a forest on either side of the roadway that could fall."
The city doesn't have as many trees, so the county always sees more downed trees during rain and thunderstorms.
"There is another round of rain that's supposed to be coming through (Saturday night), but they downgraded to only a 10 percent chance," Purvis said. "I'm going to say won't happen or will just be a small rain event."
"Now Sunday, they have another large front that's supposed to come through, and we are supposed to get a lot more rain that we don't need," he said.